Quinn Wants More Controls On Payday Loan Industry

By Steve Miller

Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn is pushing state legislative aimed to put more controls on payday loan centers.

Short-term loans that carry an interest rate as high as 13-hundred percent are not unheard of, says Quinn.

"We're tired of seeing average everyday people who are the heart and soul of our state get trapped by the payday loan industry."

And Quinn says there has been an increase in payday loan centers near Illinois military bases - taking advantage, he says, of military men and women who get low pay.

But Bob Wolfberg, the president of the Illinois Small Loan Association, says the legislation Quinn is pushing would cut payday loan interest rates by 90 percent.

"We employ over 4-thousand people in the state of Illinois. The Quinn bill would put 4-thousand people out of work."

Wolfberg says the payday loan industry makes tens of thousands of loans in Illinois every year - and he says people like Quinn always find one person who's treated badly.

Quinn says a lot of payday loan centers are located around the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, and he says those payday loans take advantage of an underpaid military by getting them in a cycle of debt.

Terry Thomas, the director of the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, says he sees it with more and more military people he deals with.

"They have payday loans and they're trying to pay them down. But they don't have the rent money. Or they don't have the money for food."

Wolfberg says he feels sorry for people who have gotten into a loan - and are having problems getting out.

"If that one-out-of-a-million person gets into trouble, we want to help that person."

From: http://www.wbbm780.com/asp/ViewMoreDetails.asp?ID=34969